Kaine: “Lying is unforgivable;” Weiner Should Resign

According to Tim Kaine, Rep. Anthony Weiner should resign, as “Lying publicly about something like this is unforgivable.” That’s fine with me, as I believe Weiner’s a…well, weiner for lying about his inappropriate – albeit not illegal – behavior. As usual, it’s the lying and coverup that often matters a lot more than the initial scandal in politics, and this is one of those cases.

However: having said that, I would point out that Anthony Weiner lied about something utterly trivial compared to war and peace, the economy, global warming, and many other issues. If Tim Kaine, and Eric Can’tor for that matter, are so concerned with Anthony Weiner’s behavior, then I presume they both also would support – or would have supported at the time – the following politicians being forced to resign:

*Bill Clinton, who lied publicly about “not having sexual relations with that woman. I don’t recall Tim Kaine calling on Clinton to resign at the time, although I do remember Joe Lieberman, who Tim Kaine endorsed for president in 2004, condemning Clinton back in 1998.

*The many politicians, mostly Republican, who implicitly or explicitly linked 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, when absolutely no such link existed.

*Every politician, mostly Republicans again, who “deny” climate science. Every time they say that there’s doubt about anthropogenic global warming, they’re outright lying. In fact, it’s the Big Lie, about an enormously important issue – possibly the most important one facing mankind.

*Every Republican who calls “Obamacare” (which isn’t it’s name, so that’s a minor lie in and of itself) “job killing” or “budget busting.” According to the Congressional Budget Office and every other serious analysis done of the health care reform law signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, those charges are simply not true. As in “lie.”

*Every Republican or Democrat who claims that we have a “spending problem” but not a “revenue problem.” That’s flat-out false, as federal revenues are now at their lowest level as a share of the economy since 1950, and the Bush tax cuts have been shown over and over again to be responsible for much if not most of the deficit. Again, they’re lying.

We could go on all day, but you get the idea. If it’s so necessary that Anthony Weiner resign for lying about something utterly trivial in nature compared to the huge issues facing our country, then why aren’t Tim Kaine, Eric Can’tor et al demanding that hundreds of politicians resign immediately for serious, major lies about truly consequential subjects? I guess asking for consistency from politicians is too much to ask, unfortunately. Feh.